The Government of Spain had just refused to raise the price of milk by 25 cents more per liter in that spring of 1978. The argument was that in our country there was a surplus, but the farmers couldn’t make ends meet. It was precisely then that a scandal of major proportions was uncovered: the black market for powdered milk that was imported through the Port of Santander. Tons that disappeared from the free zone and that explained what was happening.
In Spain there was more milk circulating than was legally recognized and, what was more serious, cookies, chocolate, ice cream, cheese, sausages and even milk made with this powder adulterated with alfalfa flour and phenolphthalein, not suitable for human consumption, were being consumed. With a product that could only be used in the manufacture of livestock feed and that someone was diverting to the food industries with an obvious desire for profit, because they sold it for double or triple what was paid for animal use.
Previous suspects also joined the case. Some years earlier, in 1968, a ship flying the Greek flag was transporting tons of powdered milk from Great Britain to Bulgaria but, without any explanation, they ended up being unloaded in Santander and ended up in the hands of a public limited company in Madrid. A rancher, standing on the trail, reported it to the authorities because he thought it was strange. A few days later, the Police showed up at his farm to take samples of the milk he gave to the calves. But he knew nothing about his complaint.
The director of the Free Warehouse at that time confessed that in the first ten months of two years before, in 1976, 31,000 tons of powdered milk had entered from New Zealand and other European countries, but officially only 18,000 had left. The powdered milk arrived at the Port of Santander without any health control. The Franco Deposit was in charge of denaturalizing it. That is, it should have been rendered unusable for human consumption by applying a dye. But it didn’t: it was moved directly from the ship to the warehouses.
This has been happening since 1968. In Spain, almost twice as many tons were imported as were needed for feed, but no one seemed to notice, although it happened in plain sight of everyone with absolute normality. The powdered milk thieves entered at night through the roofs of the warehouses in the free zone of the Port of Santander, opened the door and calmly loaded the merchandise – up to 21 tons – into the trucks without anyone bothering them. On other occasions, they did the smuggling in broad daylight: they left through the access barrier with their papers in order, taking the precaution of placing legal bags on the surface and underneath, camouflaged, bulk powdered milk. No one checked the cargo, no one monitored the strange nocturnal activity, no one ever wondered why practically all the powdered milk that Spain imported arrived at the Port of Santander. With this impunity, for years, tons of bags were sent to renowned factories. It was sold for 150 pesetas per liter and 10 worth of milk came out of each one.
It was a scandal with national repercussions. The newspaper uncovered it The Monday Sheet as a fraud that involved industrialists, transporters and Port workers, with some very well-known surnames in the city. Ángel Velasco Buitrago, for example, in charge of Buques Yllera, SA, one of the companies that operated in the Port, was arrested; the transporter Santiago Arenas and Godofredo Alvés, a singular character who attempted suicide by swallowing fourteen optalidones and two valiums when he was being interrogated at the police station. He ended up admitted to the prison ward of the Valdecilla Hospital where he confessed to the judge: “If something happens to me, don’t think that it was a random accident.” Known as ‘the Brazilian’, he had already been convicted nine times for crimes against property.
The alleged involvement of notable surnames from Santander’s elitist circles added more interest to the matter, which added to the indignation of citizens at the fraud. The Monday Sheetdirected by journalist Juan González Bedoya, published the names of the businessmen linked to the plot and followed the evolution of the scandal week by week. A few days later, on the morning of April 4, 1979, a boy who did not seem to be of age, dressed in a red anorak and jeans, arrived at the newsroom. He opened the door and placed a neatly wrapped package on the reception counter. There was no need to read the accompanying letter because two cables protruded from one end of the package.
The director of La Hoja del Lunes must leave Cantabria within a week; Otherwise, the next explosive will not carry any instructions and will explode a few meters from Bedoya.
“Attention, do not try to open this package. Do not move it abruptly. “It contains a highly explosive product, with a device to explode in approximately one hour,” the letter warned. “The director of The Monday Sheet You must leave Cantabria within a week; Otherwise, the next explosive will not carry any instructions and will explode a few meters from Bedoya,” he added. It was a package bomb with 800 grams of Goma2 that the Civil Guard bomb bombers detonated in an open field. The shock wave lifted the hood of one of the Police cars parked 50 meters away.
Change of denaturation method
A few months before the scandal broke out, some Port concessionaires such as Yllera, Cantabria Sil or Velasco Buitrago had fired 70 workers when the authorities demanded that they change the method of denaturing milk powder. Until February 1976, it was made using alfalfa flour and phenolphthalein, which was difficult to detect if this milk had been sold for human consumption. To avoid fraud – like the one that was happening – the Administration had replaced the mixture with blood and fish meal, almost impossible to hide from analysis. The warehouse owners were opposed to this new system, which complicated the diversion for human consumption, and tried to stop the situation by forcing layoffs that were finally declared inadmissible.
The 650 tons of undenatured milk powder that are missing from the Santander free warehouse have not been stolen, but rather respond to the natural losses experienced by the bags during the nine years of operation of the warehouses.
After the fraud became public, the General Directorate of Customs closed eight warehouses in the Port that had been under a temporary free warehouse regime since 1968 and over which it did not exercise any control. The most disconcerting thing was the result of the internal investigation: “The 650 tons of undenatured milk powder that are missing from the Santander free warehouse have not been stolen, but rather respond to the natural losses experienced by the bags during the nine years. of warehouse operation,” argued the general director of Customs. That is, they had volatilized into ‘sweeps’. He also added that everything was the result of a confusion in the account book of 1,108 tons registered as natural (fit for human consumption) when in reality they were undenatured, that is, destined for transformation into feed.
17 accused of stealing 42 tons
17 people were eventually charged with the fraud, accused of stealing 42 tons from the port’s free warehouses, between 1976 and 1978, to later sell the product at double or triple the original price to agri-food industries. The case was handled by the judge of Court number 1 of Santander who seriously considered the possibility of taking a statement from Jaime Lamo de Espinosa, then Minister of Agriculture; Fernando Abril Martorell, his predecessor in office, and Justo de las Cuevas, then UCD deputy and president of the Provincial Agrarian Chamber.
In the end, the trial was held in the Provincial Court in April 1982. It ended with minimum sentences for three of the 14 people involved who sat in the dock. Ángel Velasco, who had been free on bail, and Antonio Crespo, did not appear because they had benefited from the application of a pardon. Santiago Arenas had died a few months after the fraud was discovered. The prosecutor requested 16 years in prison for Godofredo Alvés, ‘the Brazilian’, who had escaped from the Santander Provincial Prison two years before the trial. He always refused to reveal the names of his accomplices.
The prosecutor confessed his powerlessness to carry out his work due to the lack of collaboration from the public Administration to clarify the facts and the irregularities reported. The defendants refused to ratify the confessions previously made before the judge. Several witnesses did not appear at the trial. Neither did one of the accused, a cheesemaker from Liencres who was untraceable in Mexico. The defense lawyers agreed in blaming the press for having invented a non-existent scandal.
In the end they only condemned the bottom of the ranks. Two of them received six and seven months in prison, and Godofredo Alves received five years for the crime of theft. It was proven that he took trucks out of the Port with powdered milk that was stored in a store in the Santander neighborhood of Adarzo. For this reason, they also sentenced him to compensate the Santander free warehouse with 163,130 pesetas, and 31,500 pesetas to the Cantabria de Silos firm. A major paradox. They won even when they had a lot to lose.
#plot #powdered #milk #Port #Santander #tons #destination #scandal #remained #unresolved
